Final Fantasy XIII first impressions (Xbox 360)

It’s probably too late for me to give my Final Fantasy XIII first impressions, being that I am on disc 3 of 3, but better late than never.

I went in with almost no hope for the game, and I was blown out of the water by it.

First off, the story. I found the story easy to follow. It had twists I didn’t expect, but I didn’t find it hard to follow. Basically (attempting to avoid spoilers), you become the enemy of your home and everyone wants to destroy you.

The thing I enjoyed the most was the combat. It can be rather bland at the beginning, but once you beat the first boss, the combat opens up. Each character gets a set of roles they can play, and you can have a lot of combinations based off of those roles. One such way to fight is to start off offensively, take out a few enemies, then switch to another set of roles based off of healing and surviving. It allows for a different feel in combat and allows for many different ways to play.

Outside of combat, there’s nothing that is too impressive. The camera movement is odd, and walking can be a bit off, but it controls well enough to not break the game.

Graphically, it looks great. It doesn’t look old, but it’s not the next great visionary feat.

I find it to be rather easy. I have only failed a few times, and those have been on either bosses or other tough encounters.

In conclusion, I love this game. It’s got a very unique combat system, and nothing else takes away from it. However, I’m not the only person in love with this game. While I have not listened to the first 10 episodes of Unqualifed Gamers (or as it once was, Unqualified: A Video Game Podcast), Cody loves this as much as I do, and he’s talked about it on some of the earlier podcasts.

Writer’s Note: I really appreciate the opportunity to write on this website. It has helped me grow as a writer, and while I may not have gotten a whole lot of direct feedback, this has been one of the best things that has happened to me. I’d like to thank you all for reading my content.